What Comes Next?

Rosa Tock had always been a planner.

After spending nearly two decades analyzing public policy for the State of Minnesota, she knew how to set goals, solve problems and make thoughtful decisions. When retirement approached, she thought she had done exactly that: the finances were in place. The timing felt right. She was looking forward to the freedom she had worked so hard to earn.

What surprised her wasn't having too much time. It was realizing she hadn't planned for what came after work.

"I needed some sort of structure or plan to make the best of my free time," Rosa says. "I wanted to understand what I wanted to do in the next 10 or 15 years instead of just doing things without any intentionality."

It wasn't that she lacked interests or opportunities. As the former executive director of a small state agency, she wanted to continue contributing, learning and making a difference. But for the first time in decades, there was no clear roadmap. The routines and identity that had quietly shaped her life were gone, leaving her with a question many people eventually face, whether they're retiring, changing careers or simply reaching a point where they're ready to ask what comes next.

How do you intentionally create a meaningful next chapter? Rosa's experience is far from unique.

As Americans live longer, work longer and experience more career and life transitions than previous generations, midlife has become less of a milestone and more of a crossroads. Yet while there are countless resources for launching careers, building professional skills and preparing financially for retirement, there are remarkably few that help people navigate the personal questions that often accompany this stage of life.

Those are the questions that led Rosa to the The Midlife Academy at the University of Minnesota.

She enrolled in Next Chapter Reset: Creating Momentum, one of two courses designed to help participants explore the opportunities and possibilities that emerge during midlife. Looking back, Rosa says the experience didn't hand her a blueprint for the future. Instead, it gave her something she hadn't realized she needed: the chance to explore those questions alongside others who were asking them, too.

"I wasn't the only person trying to figure this out," she says. "It helped to be with other people who were asking similar questions."

That sense of shared exploration was a key feature of the MLA's original design that has proven to be even more valuable during the first year.

Seeds of Possibility

When The Midlife Academy launched a little more than a year ago, its mission was ambitious: create a place where people could thoughtfully explore what comes next in work, retirement, relationships, and health, and navigate midlife transitions with purpose. 

The idea was grounded in decades of research on adult development and lifelong learning. But as the Academy's first cohorts began meeting, another kind of learning took place. Participants weren't the only ones discovering new perspectives. The Academy itself was learning what people need most as they navigate this stage of life.

For Kate Schaefers, those questions have shaped much of her professional career.

A licensed psychologist, Kate directs the University of Minnesota's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and The Midlife Academy. She previously led the University's Advanced Careers Initiative and now co-chairs The Nexel Collaborative, a consortium of colleges and universities exploring how higher education can better support adults at midlife and beyond through periods of transition. 

One assumption surfaced repeatedly. Many participants believed they were supposed to navigate midlife on their own.

"A lot of people just assume that it's a personal problem. They think, 'I have to figure this out on my own,’” says Kate.

She goes on to explain that researchers have spent decades studying how adults successfully move through major life transitions. The Academy was created to translate that research into practical experiences and conversations that help people move forward with greater intention.

As participants began sharing their stories, Kate noticed something else. They made the greatest progress when they stopped searching for one perfect answer and gave themselves permission to experiment.

"Don't be afraid to try things out. Don't be afraid of stumbling. It's okay to have an experiment that fails. Don't be afraid to try something new, to stretch out of your comfort zone. Even if it doesn't work out, you will have learned something along the way," she says.

That philosophy runs throughout the Academy's curriculum. Rather than treating purpose as one life-defining mission, instructors encourage participants to think about what Kate calls "purpose with a small p" — finding meaning through everyday experiences, relationships and contributions that naturally evolve over time.

No stranger to midlife pivots herself, Bri Smith watched those ideas unfold from a different vantage point. As program manager, Bri helped shape the participant experience from the Academy's earliest planning through its first cohorts. Working closely with participants throughout the program gave her an inside look at what unfolded in each cohort. 

She expected participants would appreciate learning together. She didn't expect those relationships to become one of the Academy's most lasting outcomes.

"What we have seen with these courses that has just blown me away is the staying power of these cohorts," Bri says.

Long after the courses conclude, participants continue to stay connected, encouraging one another and sharing how they're putting new ideas into practice. For Kate and Bri, those ongoing relationships became one of the Academy's most valued outcomes. 

"It's really easy to get stuck when you're trying to figure out what's next," Kate says. “Having people to bounce ideas off of while exploring new possibilities can make all the difference.”

By the end of its first year, The Midlife Academy had confirmed something both simple and encouraging: people don't need every answer before taking the first step. They need research they can trust, the freedom to experiment and a community that reminds them they don't have to figure everything out on their own.  

Redefining Success

If Rosa's story begins with retirement, Craig Partin's begins in the midst of a successful career.

For decades, Craig built a career in the corporate housing industry, leading companies that provide furnished apartments and temporary accommodations for business travelers and relocating professionals. Like many executives, he had spent so many years in leadership that imagining a different role meant rethinking how he defined success. 

Over time, however, the demands of his career became harder to reconcile with his family responsibilities. Craig and his husband were helping care for several family members who required varying levels of home care, prompting him to reconsider how he wanted work to fit into his life.

As he began thinking about his next move, Craig enrolled in Cultivating Purpose, the other of the two courses currently offered. He says that simply making the commitment became a catalyst, prompting him to think about possibilities in ways he hadn't before.

Craig acted on that new perspective even before the first class met. Rather than pursuing another executive position with a company that had been recruiting him, he proposed something different: a fractional, individual contributor role that would allow him to continue sharing his expertise while creating more space for family and the rest of his life. 

To his surprise, they said “yes.”

As the course unfolded over the following weeks, Craig and his classmates explored how fulfillment can grow from everyday choices as much as major milestones. Today, a handwritten list taped beside his computer monitor serves as a daily reminder of what matters most: connecting with others, learning, spending time in nature, helping someone else and making space for family. 

An Experiment of Its Own

Throughout its first year, The Midlife Academy encouraged participants to think differently about experimentation — not as something reserved for entrepreneurs or scientists, but as a practical way of approaching life: Try something new. Reflect on what you learn. Keep what fits. Let go of what doesn't.

In some ways, the Academy was conducting an experiment of its own:

Would people make time for conversations about purpose, identity and life's next chapter? Would they be willing to wrestle openly with questions that often go unspoken? And could a university create a space where research, reflection and community came together in ways that genuinely helped people navigate change?

A little more than a year later, those questions are beginning to answer themselves.

What started with two in-depth courses has grown into a broader ecosystem of learning. In addition to Cultivating Purpose and Next Chapter Reset: Creating Momentum, the Academy invites people into the conversation through a podcast series and webinars featuring experts on career transitions, retirement planning and other topics related to midlife, and through additional learning opportunities designed to meet adults wherever they are in their journey. Shorter workshops are also in development, creating new ways for people to engage with the ideas without committing to a multiweek course. 

The expansion isn't simply about offering more programs. It's a reflection of what the Academy learned during its first year. People enter these conversations from different places. Some are preparing for retirement. Others are navigating career transitions, caregiving responsibilities or shifting family dynamics. Others simply feel that something is changing and want the space to explore what that might mean. 

The Academy's experiment continues, and its first year offered an encouraging answer. People showed up — not because they expected easy answers, but because they were looking for a place to ask meaningful questions together. 

Just Getting Started

Last November, Rosa Tock retired from a career in state government knowing she wanted this next phase of life to be meaningful. What she didn't know was what shape it would take.

Today, she's beginning to find her answer — not through one defining opportunity, but through a series of small ones.

The conversations and exercises in Next Chapter Reset: Creating Momentum helped her identify the values that mattered most to her: connecting people, building communities and creating spaces where others can collaborate and grow. Those discoveries led her to explore a new direction as a facilitator, helping organizations with strategic planning, coalition building and community engagement. She's now taking courses to build those skills while continuing to explore where they might lead.

Just as important, she says, the course changed her expectations about how quickly those answers should come.

"I started with some sort of impatience," she says. "I have these ideas. I have those skills. I can do things, and I want to do them right away."

Over time, that urgency gave way to something else.

"I realized that it doesn't have to be immediate," she says. "You can take your time to learn, to unlearn things and to relearn as you're exploring."

These days, Rosa is still exploring with intentionality. She has a handful of ideas she's excited to pursue, and she's allowing herself to discover which ones are worth following.

Her advice to others facing a similar transition is simple:

"Just do it. Just explore it. Just go ahead and do it."